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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Bidar getting ready to embrace postal ATMs

Source: The Hindu :-

Bidar Head Post Office has begun preparations to provide Automated Teller Machine (ATM) facilities to depositors. This, the officials say, is among the initial steps to roll out the payment banking operations recently approved by the Reserve Bank of India.

India Post branches are already offering ATM services in cities such as Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, and Kalaburagi. Bidar is included in the second phase, where over 1,000 ATMs are being installed.

As a first step, complete computerisation of data has been achieved. Core Banking Solutions platforms are being built to integrate records of savings bank deposits with the department’s branches pan-India.

“We have demarcated a secure room for installing the ATM. The machine would be installed soon,” S.S. Kandimath, superintendent of posts, told The Hindu.

The Bidar division of India Post has 170 post offices and rural branches. The post offices and branches have a total of 3,50,004 Savings Bank accounts. “This is our most popular scheme. We also offer eight other financial services and two insurance schemes,” Mr. Kandimath said. Recurring deposits, monthly income schemes, term deposits and public provident fund schemes add up to another 2 lakh accounts.

When the department started issuing ATM cards, the first ones to get them were the employees. “We are also encouraging our regular customers to opt for these cards. A minimum of 1,000 cards are being issued in the first phase. We anticipate a higher demand and have sought release of more cards from the central office,” a senior officer said, adding, “In our division, we have more savings bank accounts than all the branches of all banks in the district put together. It shows our trust levels. We will build on that.”

Another officer said that a section of the staff will be deputed to banking and financial operations very soon. They will work from the same premises, but will have distinct functions, said an officer with knowledge of the financial transactions